Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API

#81

Post by atmosx » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 6:59 PM UTC

Great My blog[1] uses a static side generator called middleman[2] and I was looking for a way to share 'quotes' in the website's subtitle. This seems to be the best solution! I was about to write a simple Sinatra API to run in localhost, but that's a way better solution for my use case!

Thanks!

[1] http://www.convalesco.org/

[2] https://middlemanapp.com/

UPDATE: A good use case is to use the HTML form to store subscribe/notify-me emails for landing pages. I was about to build a YAML file or use SQLite3 to store emails via form, but this is so much more convenient.

Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API

#82

Post by michaeloblak » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 7:23 PM UTC

I've got submited to Product Hunt[1].

[1] http://www.producthunt.com/tech/sheetsu

Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API

#83

Post by philbo87 » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 7:24 PM UTC

michaeloblak wrote: post #59

philbo87 wrote: post #54

Is there a way to get data from each sheet in a workbook? I'd love to use this, it is so simple. But it only seems to get the first sheet in my workbook.

Yes, it could be done. I'll implement that feature.

Awesome! FWIW, my needs don't require any sort of "relational" concept as some comments have suggested, I just need to be able to do all existing operations on each sheet in the workbook. I guess being able to get a list of the sheets in the workbook might be useful, as well, or get a sheet by name, but for my use case I already know the name.

Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API

#84

Post by prawks » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 7:44 PM UTC

What is the advantage of using this service over hitting Google's RESTful Spreadsheet API directly?

https://developers.google.com/google-apps/spreadsheets

Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API

#85

Post by michaeloblak » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 7:44 PM UTC

prawks wrote: post #84

What is the advantage of using this service over hitting Google's RESTful Spreadsheet API directly? https://developers.google.com/google-apps/spreadsheets

It's easier.

Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API

#86

Post by rememberlenny » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 8:00 PM UTC

staticvar wrote: post #67

Cloudstitch is another service that gives you a RESTful interface over a Google Sheet. http://www.cloudstitch.com/ I made a video showing how to send a Raspberry Pi's temperature sensor data to a Google Sheet using Cloudstitch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqa9Zkm7pCU

Cloudstitch is pretty neat for low-tech workers too. Reminds me of the same audience that Zapier targets. Great for marketing, report prep, etc.

Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API

#87

Post by oso2k » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 9:34 PM UTC

michaeloblak wrote: post #85

prawks wrote: post #84

What is the advantage of using this service over hitting Google's RESTful Spreadsheet API directly? https://developers.google.com/google-apps/spreadsheets

It's easier.

Could you explain what you mean by easier?

Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API

#88

Post by franciscop » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 10:05 PM UTC

rubbingalcohol wrote: post #44

I've used Google Spreadsheet as an "API" before (manually, not using this wrapper), and it is definitely not made to be used as such. Under heavy load, it slows down or times out, and even under the best circumstances it's not exactly fast. It's great in a pinch. My use-case was a spreadsheet that others in my organization wanted to edit, then we'd pull the data onto a web page and display nicely. It worked, but even…

I made a node.js package that does exactly this, a local cache in json with few hooks for data modification, and you can control when to update it to avoid timeouts [1]

Then we used it as backens for a blog for my University team as we were already using Drive, being each entry a google docs document [2]

[1] https://github.com/franciscop/drive-db [2] http://www.makersupv.com/

Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API

#89

Post by michaeloblak » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 10:10 PM UTC

oso2k wrote: post #87

michaeloblak wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easier.

Could you explain what you mean by easier?

You don't have to implement Google API or use any lib to talk with it. Just paste link and get API end-point with docs, which is easier to use. Much more easier than creating your app at Google Console, connecting with it, etc. Especially if you are not a programmer.

Re: Show HN: Turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API

#90

Post by tmarthal » Mon, Sep 21, 2015, 10:50 PM UTC

rubbingalcohol wrote: post #44

I've used Google Spreadsheet as an "API" before (manually, not using this wrapper), and it is definitely not made to be used as such. Under heavy load, it slows down or times out, and even under the best circumstances it's not exactly fast. It's great in a pinch. My use-case was a spreadsheet that others in my organization wanted to edit, then we'd pull the data onto a web page and display nicely. It worked, but even…

There are a bunch of 'fork-n-go' github jekyl sample applications that wrap a webpage with a Google Spreadsheet datasource.

Here is a sample (from a github employee) that I've used in the past. Source: https://github.com/jlord/hack-spots and live site: jlord.us/hack-spots/#info - not sure how they are caching the spreadsheet, but I've never seen it not perform (not sure about concurrent users or whatever though).